Man Down
by MQDK
Summary: Franks side of the story behind Jack's time as a POW


Spoilers: none really, but perhaps you'll get it better if you have seen A Matter of Time and know the whole story behind Jack's time as a POW in Iraq...

Disclaimers: You know theire not mine ;o)

Now, on with it!  
_

"Where is Jack?!"

The mere fact that Ltd. Davis was bleeding profoundly from his belly and that Smith was at his side, begging us to help him, was enough to make my blood freeze: those two men hated each others on a good day, and I had only decided to give them a chance because of something Jack had said;  
_"Everybody deserve a second chance, even those two fuck heads."_  
Jack had apparently seen something in the two men I had not; potential.  
And now I saw that he had been right, they helped and worried over, each other.  
I was glad to see they had figured out what ever bad blood there had been between them and I knew that one day, Jack would pull me in to a bar, and smugly state, _'I told you so'_ to his superior.  
Jack was, is not only under my command, but a damn good officer and my best friend, and I would give anything for having him here to say those words, in front of everybody. I would not care, but instead, as I ordered the chopper to lift of, Smith panted, while still holding a bandage to Davis side:

"The Captain went down sir. I'm sorry, there were nothing we could do, Davis was hit and Captain O'Neill ordered us out of there, telling us to keep going, that he was right behind us!" Smith was on the verge of breaking; I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes.  
"Where is he Lieutenant?!" I asked in a sharp voice, hoping to hell my voice wouldn't betray me.  
I saw in the rest of my men's eyes that they needed me to stay strong.  
God dammit, they were all way to young to be here!  
Smith broke down, weeping those words that will hunt me forever:  
"They took him Sir!"  
They. Them. The enemy. They had taken Jack.  
"Was he still alive?" I dared to ask, hoping to hell that he was not, hoping to hell that Jack had not ended up as a POW for the Iraqis.  
Smith couldn't answer, his tears streaming down his face, snot rolling over his mouth.  
What the hell had happened out there, that could make a man like Smith, who had been raised in Hell's Kitchen and serving as one of the toughest special ops. I had ever met, snap like that?  
"Smith!"  
No response, only his frantic working on Davis, who I could see, wouldn't make it back to base.  
"Lieutenant Smith!"  
Nothing.  
I reached over and took him by the collar : "Larry! SNAP OUT OF IT!" I yelled, frantic shaking the man. I needed to know exactly what had happened to Jack, where he was and in what shape he had been in when taken, so I could mobilise a new team and go get him when we reached base.  
"He was alive Sir." Davis said, just loud enough for me to hear it.  
"What?!" I let go of the panic stricken airman and turned my attention to the dying one.  
"He was alive when they took him, Sir. He produced cover fire for us as they got him in the back and thigh. He was bleeding heavily…"  
Davis seemed determent to tell his horrible tale before succumb totally to the frightfully cough that told in no uncertain way, that his lunges had had it and was filling, drowning him in his own blood. "Take it easy Airman. What happened?" I asked, in a lower voice and hunched closer to his face to hear it all over the noise from the chopper.  
"He was bleeding badly sir." He wouldn't let the fear and guilt over leaving Jack behind take over his voice before the tale was told.  
Davis was a good man and a fine officer.  
"They took us from behind Sir, a total surprise, and they got me. I didn't even see them coming, but the captain had and he took out three of them before we could even react…But they were too many, Smith was out of ammo and my weapon was gone Sir… Major, if we only had thought, Smith could had used my ammo. "  
He looked up at me with guilt and sorrow written in his eyes, begging me for forgiveness.  
"It's okay Davis. You did good." I clapped him on the cheek, hoping to hell he bought it. God dammit, if I hadn't taken those two with us, Jack would have been here now. This was not a mission for them to learn to work together, I should never had listen to Jack, this was all my fault! "Did you see where they took him?" but it was too late, Davis was unconscious so I looked over at Smith who had finally snapped out of it.  
"No, sir. I'm sorry, sir, this is all my fault, if I…"  
I cut him of. "Stop it lieutenant, it's NOT your fault. It's nobody's fault, you all hear me?" everybody nodded but in a very uncertain way, thinking that in a team it was everybody's fault.  
But it's not. It's the team leaders fault. And that was me, I was the leader.  
It was my fault Jack was taken and now I had made the decision to leave as fast as possible to save the rest of the team.  
But Jack was still down there.  
So much for nobody get's left behind.  
All I could do was to pray that we could get him back as soon as possible, and that Jack would eventually, forgive me…


End file.
